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Philip Addison reveals why AMERI has no expertise in power projects

Mr Addison in an television interview on Metro TV said they recommended a termination in the event that renegotiation fails.

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He said "we thought that we have come far, PPR is operating the plant, so let’s take first soft approach to renegotiate because they themselves have expressed that willingness to renegotiate failing which we terminate."

Mr Addison in an television interview on Metro TV said they also recommended a termination in the event that renegotiation fails.

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Revelations by the 17-member Committee set up by the energy Minister, Boakye Agyarko to investigate the AMERI after its investigations disclosed that it had discovered many lapses in the contract.

The report stated that the erstwhile administration fraudulently paid an extra $150 million in the power plant deal.

According to the report, although the contractor, PPR, financed and built the plant at the cost of $360 million, AMERI, which secured the deal requested payment of $510 million from government.

The Minority in Parliament has called for an investigation over alleged malfeasance by the Philip Addison-led committee when the committee undertook a trip to Dubai as part of its work.

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According to the Minority, the Addison Committee placed itself in a situation of conflict of interest which is a clear violation of the Constitution.

Responding to their claims, Philip Addison said AMERI did not influence the committee.

"If you see the contract, there is nothing in that contract that tells you that it would be performed by a third party. All the warranties and guarantees were given by Ameri.

"Now it turns out that this is a company that has no idea, expertise, and history about power projects; so how did they enter into this kind of agreement? So if you make statements by which another party is induced and it turns out that those statements are false, they are fraudulent misrepresentation," he added.

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He said AMERI rather served as an agent to secure the contract and further subcontracted it to third parties including General Electronics (GE) and Metcar to build, install and run the power plants.

Mr Addison said based on their findings, the committee has recommended a renegotiation of the contract or outright abrogation if the renegotiation proves futile.

"First of all, there is $150 million that is the contract price, then they subcontracted it to PPR for $360 million. So that is $150 million out of the $510 million. In addition to that, in the agreement, there are variable charges which had been put in the agreement as $16.6 million. I questioned these both here in Ghana and at Dubai.

"At both places the answer I got was that it was a mistake. The reason why it struck me was that, how come a variable cost could have a fixed sum. I’m advised that the plant even at maximum production should be around $8 million," Addison said.

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